Monsters of Hogwarts
by Hollister627
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione must face the Battle of Hogwarts headstrong and fight for their freedom, even if a few lives must be lost as necessary. Creatures and beasts that were once forgotten assume their rightful role in this battle as Harry and the others realize that to defeat an army of humans, sometimes you need a couple of monsters as well.


The small group of warriors rushed up the stairs leading towards the Great Hall. Harry turned his head swiftly, talking to his friends as fast as he could. The Battle of Hogwarts had been lasting for close to an hour now and the death eaters weren't holding back. They poured over the bodies of teenagers, students and teachers alike.

"All right guys," he said loudly, looking over their weary faces. Hermione and Ron stared back, still behind him after all of this time. It was magnificent, he though suddenly, that they hadn't just left him for dead, after everything they had gone through. "I don't know where Voldemort is and it doesn't seem like anyone else does either. He must have fled to the Shrieking Shack for shelter. But our main enemy right now isn't him. It's her."

Turning towards the doorway, he pointed towards a woman who was shrieking maniacally as she fought against Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick. She seemed to be enjoying herself rather nicely, he thought furiously. And she was winning. Filius shot a binding jinx at her, but she deflected it with a flick of her wand. Then the woman, knocking Minerva aside crudely with a quick stunning spell, turned to the tiny dwarf-like teacher and screamed horrifically, "Avada Kedavra!"

Hermione screamed as the head of Ravenclaw House fell to the floor, his eyes unmoving. She turned to Harry, her eyes filled with tears and whispered, "Please Harry. Let me kill her. I can do it, please!"

Harry gulped. He didn't want to send his friend off to fight Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the most powerful witches on the planet. He could have sent her with Ginny and George, who were standing next to the small band of fighters, but they were preoccupied by the sudden appearance of Fenrir Greyback, who lashed out with his slowly growing claws at George before being knocked backwards by a curse from Ginny.

"Please Harry, if we don't stop her, she'll kill Professor McGonagall too!" And it was true. Bellatrix was still taunting the dead body of Professor Flitwick for the moment, glorifying in the blood on his robe. But Minerva was still lying on the floor, struggling to stand. Any moment now, the Head of Gryffindor house would be killed by a small piece of wood wielded by a woman who should have been in a psych ward.

Turning back to Hermione, he nodded. "Hermione, don't die," he whispered softly, stroking the side of her hair. He wanted so desperately to go with her, but Ron was dueling with Yaxley and Harry needed to get to the Room of Requirement. He knew that somewhere inside, the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw awaited him.

She did not speak, but merely pulled him into a short hug. He could smell the blood in her hair, which was tangled and filled with dirt. Her eyes had bags under them, but she was ready to battle the witch named Bellatrix to the death.

They broke apart and she looked at Ron, who was backing down a hallway as he yelled, "Expelliarmus!", which Yaxley easily deflected. She wanted to hold his hand one more time, tell him that he was the only one she had ever wanted. But there wasn't time. Bellatrix was getting bored with the old professor's body.

Without taking another glance, Hermione took a deep breath, and then rushed into the Great Hall. She ran as fast as her legs would allow towards Bellatrix, who slowly looked up as her black lips curled into a grin. Oh, this should be fun, thought Bellatrix maleficently.

"Look at what the cat dragged in!" she giggled, her yellow teeth spread wide across her overjoyed face. "Ms. Granger, I was wondering when you'd drop in!"

Hermione raised her wand, her hand steady. "You killed Flitwick, you monster. I won't let you hurt anyone else."

Bellatrix's laughs echoed throughout the Great Hall. "Do you honestly think that you can stop me?" Her eyes seemed even more sunken than usual. "If two professors couldn't defeat me, what chance does a filthy mudblood have?"

Hermione lashed her wand furiously, causing a shallow cut to appear under Bellatrix's left eye. Slowly, the witch raised her head to stare horribly at the girl, deciding on which way would be best for her to die.

"You filthy little muggle," she shrieked, wiping the blood off of her face. She whipped her wand magnificently through the air and screeched, "Rictusempra!"

Hermione flew backwards five feet above the ground, landing right on top of the body of Professor Flitwick. He looked so terrified, she thought angrily. Bellatrix had to be stopped before any more died.

"Crucio!" came the voice of Bellatrix almost the second Hermione landed. Suddenly, her body was wracked with horrible pain. It felt like nothing she had felt before. Tears wanted to fall, but she was twitching so much she couldn't even cry.

"You see, Ms. Granger?" whispered Bellatrix, who was leaning over Hermione's shaking body. "You cannot win. I will not be defeated by some filthy little mudblood's tricks!"

Hermione slowly opened her eyes. To the right, she could see Minerva lying limp on the floor, unable to move. Her eyes seemed to scream, "RUN!", but Hermione couldn't move. She had lost so easily, she thought. Her eyes drifted upwards towards the psychopathic witch, who was pointing her wand at the poor girl.

"Goodbye, Ms. Granger. It is time for you to rejoin your parents."

Hermione suddenly jerked upwards. Her parents were dead? No, it was impossible! She had wiped their memories; she had sent them to Australia. And now they were gone? Just like that?

"Killed them myself," she sneered, giggling like a schoolgirl as she did so. "They begged for death, they pleaded for mercy. And I tortured them for hours."

Hermione pushed one hand on the ground and rose to her knees. "You bitch," she whispered, but all the fight was gone from her. Maybe it was for the better, she thought solemnly. She would get to see her parents soon, see Lupin and Tonks and Sirius and Professor Dumbledore. They would all be with her soon.

Slowly and quietly, she raised her arms above her head and said, "Go ahead. Kill me."

Bellatrix's mouth opened in the ultimate, most god-awful sneer imaginable. She rose her wand, pointing at Hermione and as her lips opened, Hermione thought several things.

I'm sorry Harry.

I'm so sorry Ron.

I'm so sorry everyone.

I'll be with you soon, mum and dad.

"AVADA KEDA-"

Then, with an ear shattering boom, the glass wall from behind the teacher's table exploded in a cloud of light. Bellatrix, along with everyone else in the hall, turned to see one, then two then three more massive creatures soaring through the broken window. Their wings smashed against the walls of the castle, breaking them apart and bringing in the moonlight from the outside. Candles that had been hexed to hover above the tables fell like bombs to the ground as the dragons knocked them aside like playdoh.

And oh lord, the one leading the dragons. It couldn't be, it simply couldn't be.

Rubeus Hagrid waved down from atop the back of a very familiar dragon to a stunned Hermione, who smiled and waved softly back. Slowly, the dragon fluttered down directly in front of Hermione and Bellatrix, who seemed completely surprised at this new arrival.

Hagrid took a second to take in the scene, then turned his gaze towards Bellatrix, who was slowly raising her wand. But before she could say anything, Hagrid spoke.

"I, Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of the keys and professor of care of magical creatures, relieve you of your duties."

And with that, Norberta the dragon opened her mouth and a wave of fire engulfed Bellatrix Lestrange, burning her alive. Her wand turned to ash and she screamed, toppling to the floor. It was nearly impossible to tell that it was her anymore, her body was all black and her hair had turned to dust. Then, with a small twitch, she froze and passed on.

Hermione, unable to believe her luck, looked up at Hagrid and said, "How…how did you manage to…?"

"Get all the dragons?" he finished, hopping off of Norberta's back. "Grawpy and I ran into the forest here and well, just because I'm big don't mean I can't apparate! I brought us both to Ron's brother Charlie, who you might remember works with dragons. I told him what was going on and he sent me half a dozen dragons and skilled trainers. I know Charlie mentioned in yer fourth year that dragons have a hard time getting trained. I was just so happy to see that Norberta's able to help us win this battle."

Hermione glanced over to the gargantuan beast that she remembered as a tiny baby from her first year of Hogwarts. The dragon, which they had since learned was a girl, had been Hagrid's favorite pet. She felt glad that he would get to use her to help defeat someone like Voldemort.

Suddenly, she looked over at the limp form of Minerva McGonagall in the corner, who was still locked in place by the body-binding jinx. She rushed over and whispered the counter jinx, allowing the Professor to pull her into a sharp hug, which seemed so out of character for her.

"You saved my life," she whispered, her voice hoarse. She had lost her pointed hat sometime during the battle and her hair was tumbling out of its usual bun.

Hermione shook her head. "It was Hagrid who saved you, not me."

Minerva turned to the bumbling giant of a man, who had managed to defeat Bellatrix Lestrange with his love of magical creatures. "I always knew you would do great things, Hagrid. I remember once I said that I wouldn't trust you with Harry Potter after his parent's death. But now, I would trust you with my own life."

Hagrid's face was a bright red. He brushed his hand across the scaly nose of Norberta, who made a beautiful, yet quiet cry in response.

Then they all rose, knowing that they had wasted too much time already. Hermione could only hope that Harry had made his way into the Room of Requirement and managed to destroy another Horcrux. She wondered whether Ron had managed to defeat Yaxley, or whether Ginny and George had stopped the ferocious Greyback for now.

The Great Hall was in shambles. The walls and ceiling had collapsed from the arrival of the dragons and duels were breaking out in all different locations. The dragons were snatching up death eaters in their massive jaws, tossing some into the lake, where they disappeared in a cloud of bubbles as the mermen devoured them. But they needed something else. Already, she could see a small army of Snatchers approaching from the bridge. They would need something smaller, something more mobile than massive dragons to take down this army.

"Hagrid," she thought suddenly, having another Hermione-esque idea. "Fly us into the Forbidden Forest. There's something I have to do."

Harry ran as fast as he could up the ever-moving stairs, cursing the school as the staircase suddenly moved away from the next one, forcing him to wait a little longer. His goal was the seventh floor, where the Room of Requirement would open for him and bring him to the next Horcrux. Of course, that also meant that there were seven more floors for him to get killed on. He had lost sight of Ron and Ginny and George and could only hope that they were ok. Neville and Luna had disappeared during the beginning of the battle and hadn't been seen since. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas had rallied a force of students to Hogsmeade to defend the innocent villagers. As for the others, Harry had no idea.

One staircase was down, he thought as he gasped heavily, clutching his side. He had been running all day, escaping from death eaters and fighting Alecto Carrow. He could remember the pain of her cruciatus curse like it had happened moments before, the fear in her eyes as his killing curse hit her square in the chest. Amycus Carrow had fled the scene and supposedly was with Voldemort at the moment.

As he hurried up the second, he heard something most unnatural. A wolf's cry echoed through the empty hallway. Nearly all of the duels were in or around the Great Hall. How had wolves managed to get into the castle? Unless…

He turned slowly to see Fenrir Greyback, who seemed to be halfway between his wolf stage and human stage. His eyes were like a wolf, yet his legs were still human. The werewolf licked his lips as he stared at Harry Potter, merely thirty or forty feet away from another meal. And Voldemort would be so pleased to find the boy dead, of course he would be.

The werewolf slowly began to slink up the stairs, never taking his eyes off of Harry, who stared back fearfully. Then, the boy who lived turned and ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He was on the third floor now, there were still four more to go. And the werewolf wasn't playing anymore, he was bounding up the stairs like an animal.

Harry looked around wildly, searching for a way to escape. He could fight off death eaters, but a werewolf was a different story. They were far faster and stronger than normal humans. He'd be dead before he could say stupefy.

Suddenly, a memory floated into his head. His first year, Filch and Ms Norris were after him.

He turned, gasping loudly, and bolted down the third floor corridor. The werewolf reached the top of the stairs, completely wolf now, and bounded down the empty hallways as fast as his paws would carry him.

Then, as Harry reached a dead end, the wolf leapt at him, knocking him to the floor. His glasses flew off of his face and cracked in the corner, far from his reach. He whipped his wand at what he hoped was the werewolf and luckily, the creature flew backwards for a moment, giving Harry a chance to rise to his feet.

He looked around, but everything was blurry. He could distinctly make out certain shades of the corridor, but nothing in particular stuck out at him. He squinted desperately, feeling his arms around, which earned his a paw in the hand, knocking the wand out of his hand. He yelled in terror, looking and squinting as hard as he could to see where the werewolf was, but it was impossible. He couldn't see anything, much less a grey werewolf standing still in a grey hallway.

"Help!" he cried, but it was hopeless. As the werewolf leapt towards him, he felt a doorknob under his hand. As fast as he could, he swung the door open, with Greyback flying right through it and he slammed it shut, locking it.

Then the screams began. There was the sound of clamping from inside whatever was in that room, but Harry needed to prepare himself in case the werewolf was still out there somewhere. He dropped to his knees and searched for his wand. He grabbed it, breathing heavily and yelled "Reparo!"

He could hear the sound of bits of glass forming back together and counted slowly to five for the spell to be complete. Then he shouted, "Accio Glasses!", which flew into his outstretched hand. Shoving them onto his face and glorifying in his newfound perfect sight, he turned to the door, which was still closed. He knew that whatever was inside, it had easily defeated the werewolf. But what was in there?

Slowly, his hand twisted the doorknob once more and he flung the door open, only to be met with a horrible sight.

A massive, three headed dog was sitting silently in the room, staring oddly at this next intruder and perked its ears up like it couldn't believe Harry was so stupid. In each of its mouths was a piece of flesh, lopping out of the heads like bloody tongues.

"Hi Fluffy…"


End file.
